Bassist Jon Decious and drummer Bob Ferrari left the band in 2008, and singer/guitarist Matt Friction carried on for a time with a new lineup, but Friction revealed on Thursday that the original trio was back in action -- at least in some capacity.

"Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that Jon, Bob and myself have been playing for the past few weeks," the post reads. "Not sure exactly what the future holds . . . tour? album? stay tuned."

The live performance of Sea of Cowards echoes the way they unveiled debut LP Horehound just a little bit: The band hosted an invite-only shindig at the then-brand new Third Man space, performing songs from the album in the live room where they'll host the Cowards set.

Although drummer/singer White recently told the U.K.'s NME that his approach to the Internet is to treat it "as a nuisance," his band is making good use of it otherwise, too. The Dead Weather will offer fans a chance to tune into a 24-hour web-based listening party dubbed "Screaming Vinyl Live" starting on Friday, April 30 at noon CST. Cowards will be playing on vinyl, with a camera providing video/audio coverage of the album-spinning, and embedded Ustream players on www.thirdmanrecords.com and www.thedeadweather.com will share the results.

Matthew Ebel plays and sings in his home studio (photo: Michael Clancy)

Nashville musician Matthew Ebel's payout for a 15-date March tour was modest — he took home about $500 between CD sales and tips, playing to crowds of 30 to 50 folks a night.

But considering the singer didn't have to leave his pajamas, much less his ZIP code, the jaunt wasn't exactly a bust.

Ebel's trek was inside "3-D virtual world" Second Life, where his digital avatar counterpart, avian pianist Hali Heron, provided real-time visuals for the live, Internet-streamed sound his owner cooked up back in the real world.

"It's not enough to pay the bills," Ebel says, "but considering they're concerts that I played in sweatpants in my house, (there's a) return on investment."

The growth of social networking — from podcasting networks to MySpace, Facebook and Second Life's virtual-reality socializing — is, in the eyes of techie indie musicians like Ebel, shifting the music-business model "for the benefit of the independent performer." It works best, Ebel says, "if you stay on top of it."Continue reading →